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<p>
	The sort utility performs one of the following functions:
	<ol>
		<li>
			Sort lines of all the named files together and write the result to 
			the specified output.
		</li>
		<li>
			Merge lines of all the named (presorted) files together and write 
			the result to the specified output.
		</li>
		<li>
			Check that a single input file is correctly presorted.		
		</li>
	</ol>
</p>
<p>
	Comparisons are based on one or more sort keys/fields extracted from each 
	line of input. If no sort keys/fields are specified, comparisons are based 
	on the entire line up to, but not including, the terminating 
	&lt;newline&gt;. All comparisons are performed using the collating sequence 
	of the current locale.
</p>
<p>
	Sorting is stable, that is, the ordering of input lines is preserved if they
	are considered equal according to the current comparison criteria (if two 
	lines originate from different input files, the index of the file in the
	input arguments list defines the ordering of the lines). 
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